Mystic Fist (Stalker)
You spoke, and we have answered: you told us that this year you wanted to see more support for third-party classes produced by other publishers, and today, we’re dipping into that well again with the mystic fist, a new archetype for the stalker. If you’re not familiar with the stalker, we recommend taking a look at Dreamscarred Press’s Path of War, but in the meantime, you can get the basics from the class’s page at the d20pfsrd.
New Stalker Archetype
Mystic Fist
Highly trained warriors who can channel their ki into their limbs, mystic fists practice a more reserved and guarded form of martial arts than many stalkers, and prefer to fight with their fists.
Ki Focus: The way that a mystic fist recovers maneuvers during combat is somewhat different than other stalkers. Like other stalkers, a mystic fist can center his awareness as a standard action to recover a single expended maneuver of his choice.
Alternatively, he may recover a number of expended maneuvers equal to 2 or his Wisdom modifier (whichever is higher) as a full-round action by centering his spirit and summoning up his ki. This process also grants him a number of temporary hit points equal to twice his level + his Wisdom modifier, which last until the end of the combat. These temporary hit points stack with themselves, but not with other sources of temporary hit points. Additionally, when recovering maneuvers in this way, the mystic fist gains a +1 bonus on all attack rolls he makes before the end of his next turn. This bonus increases by 1 at 5th level and every four levels thereafter (to a maximum of +5 at 17th level). A mystic fist cannot gain the benefits that other stalkers gain by recovering maneuvers as a full-round action.
This ability modifies the maneuvers readied class feature.
Ki Pool (Su): A mystic fist gains the following abilities related to his ki pool.
Ki Strike: At 1st level, as long as a mystic fist has 1 or more points of ki in his ki pool, he gains the benefits of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and his unarmed strikes deal damage as though he had a number of monk levels equal to his stalker levels. If the mystic fist belongs to a class that increases his unarmed strike damage in this fashion (such as monk or brawler), his stalker levels instead stack with levels in that class to determine the damage dealt by his unarmed strike, as long as he has at least 1 ki point in his ki pool.
Additionally, as long as the mystic fist has at least 1 point of ki in his ki pool, he ignores an amount of hardness from any objects he damages with his unarmed strike equal to 1/2 his stalker level. Further, at 5th level, his unarmed strikes count as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. At 10th level, they also count as cold iron and silver, at 15th level they count as adamantine, and at 20th level they count as epic.
This ability replaces the ability gained at 1st level to expend 1 point of ki to gain a bonus on Perception and Sense Motive checks.
Blade Grasp: At 7th level, a mystic fist can attempt to grab an opponent’s weapon to prevent himself from being hit. As an immediate action, he can expend 2 points from his ki pool to make a special disarm combat maneuver check against a creature that is attacking him. This disarm attempt never provokes attacks of opportunity. If the result of the check is greater than the attack roll, the attack automatically misses. If the result of the check is greater than the attack roll and is also higher than the attacker’s CMD, the attack misses and the attacker is disarmed. If the attack in question is a natural attack, then instead of disarming the attacker, the mystic fist deals deadly strike damage to the attacker if the check exceeds both the attack roll and the attacker’s CMD. This ability can be used to defend against ranged attacks, and if the weapon would be disarmed, then the ammunition is not destroyed. This ability cannot be used against rays, spells, and similar attack forms.
This ability replaces the ability gained at 7th level to expend ki in order to gain a bonus on a saving throw.
Deadly Strike (Ex): A mystic fist’s ability to deliver deadly strikes is not limited by the need to deliver a critical blow first, but instead can be used at any time, at the risk of accuracy. At 1st level, a mystic fist can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to deal an additional 1d6 points of damage on each successful attack. This bonus to damage is increased to 1d10 if the attack is made with a two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon using two hands, or any other kind of attack that adds 1-1/2 times the mystic fist’s Strength modifier on damage rolls. The bonus is instead reduced to 1d3 if the attack is made with an off-hand weapon or any other kind of attack that adds only 1/2 the mystic fist’s Strength modifier on damage rolls.
At 5th level, and every four levels thereafter, whenever the mystic fist uses this ability, he can choose to increase the penalty by an additional –1 in order to add another damage dice (so at 5th level he can suffer a –1 penalty for 1 damage die, or a –2 penalty for two damage dice, etc.).
Deadly strike may not be used with weapons that inflict non-lethal damage. The mystic fist must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. Creatures immune to critical hits or precision damage cannot be affected by a deadly strike, nor can creatures that have concealment against the mystic fist.
This ability modifies the deadly strike class feature.
Ki Awareness (Su): At 8th level, a mystic fist is able to sense the ki of those around him, granting him several benefits. He can use analyze auraOA as a spell-like ability for a total number of rounds per day equal to twice his stalker level. Additionally, he gains Blind-Fight as a bonus feat. Further, if a creature that the mystic fist cannot see is adjacent to the mystic fist, he automatically pinpoints that creature’s location and becomes aware of their presence.
This ability replaces the benefits granted by the combat insight class feature at 8th level.